1 **Veterans Upward Bound Summary of Public Comments**  **Proposed Changes to the 2013 Annual Performance Report**

**Following 60 -**  **Day Review Period**

**Introduction**
On July 24 , 2013, the Department of Education (Department) published a Notice of Proposed In formation Collection Request (Notice) in the Federal Register inviting comments by September 23 , 2013, on the proposed annual performance report (APR) for the Veterans Upward Bound ( VUB) program . Changes to the APR were necessitated by changes resulting from the passage of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008, the amendments to the VUB program regulations on October 10, 2010 and the new standardized project obj ectives implemented under the fiscal year (FY) 2012 competition for new grants. Five respondents submitted eight individual comments (i.e. , multiple comments from respondents). The Department reviewed each of the concerns and has taken action, as neces sary , to address the comments submitted during the 60

- day comment period. In addition, two new fields have been added to the VUB APR. The field, Participant’s Name Change (Optional), was added to assist tracking participants over time. The field will allow projects to enter and update a name change , when necessary
. Another new field , Academic Need, has been added to allow projects to report on the a cademic n eed of VUB participants (refer to discussion below). Additionally , we consolidated the three program eligibility fields in the draft VUB APR into a single field. In the previous grant cycle there were two criteria for eligibility

-- low

- income, and potential first

- generation college student

- whereas now there are three criteria : low

- income, potenti al first

- generation college student , or an individual who has a high risk for academic failure. In this one eligibility field , a grantee will be able to select for each participant an y single eligibility criterion or any

combination of the three eligibili ty criteria. Upon f urther review of the reporting requirements and to reduce the reporting burden on grantees , we decided to drop the following two fields that were in the first draft of the new VUB APR: Postsecondary

Enrollment Objective

– Numerator (VetPSEEnrollObj) and Postsecondary Completion Objective

– Numerator (VetPSCompleteObj) , since the data needed to determine the numerator for these objectives are captured in other fields. For example, the numerator for the Postsecondary

Enrollment Object ive can be derived from the data provided in the following fields: VUB Educational Program Completion Year (VetCompletYR) and the Date of First Postsecondary

School Enrollment (VetFirstEnrollDT). For the 2012

- 13 project y ear, the numerator includes those VUB participants who completed the VUB educational program during the previous project ye ar (2011

- 12) and enrolled in postsecondary education by

September 30, 2013. We also made minor technical changes, such as the coding of response options for some fiel ds and some modified verbiage, but none that significantly affect the data collected within each field or its intended use ( e.g., calculating prior experience or tracking performance measures).2

Specific changes to the APR, based on comments received fro m the public, are addressed below. **Section II: Eligibility Information High Risk**  **for Academic Failure Designation**  **Comments :**  Two commenters expressed concern about the definition and potential implications of labeling a participant as high risk. The commenters explain ed that veterans face unique challenges , as a result of their military service, when pursuing postsecondary education. The commenters further stated that no one is qualified to assign a classification on a veteran that they will experience academic failure due to these unique challenges and that the question should not be included in the data collection. **Discussion :**  The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 included a new statutory provision that expands participant eligibility for VUB to individuals “at high risk of academic failure ”. Per §645.6 of the program regulations and as noted within the “ Definitions that Apply” in the instructions accompan yi ng the APR, partici pants can be classified as high

- risk for academic failure in accordance with three different categories. This regulatory definition of high risk for academic failure for VUB was crafted based on significant feedback f rom the public during the negotiated rulemaking process that preceded the i mplementation of the regulations. During the negotiated rulemaking process the non

- Federal negotiators supported the requirement for VUB to serve high

- risk participants, and the criteria for high

- risk veterans were proposed by the non

Federal negotiators. The high

- risk for academic failure eligibility criterion allows projects to serve a broader population of participants because not all participants are required to be low

income and/or first

- generation, as they were previously
. Id entifying and reporting that a participant is at a high risk of academic failure should not be viewed negative ly , nor should it be viewed as an invariable predictor of a participant’s academic success. An assessment of whether participants meet the eligibility requirements for high risk for academic failure is required by all projects as it pertains to each participant. Accurate reportin g of participant eligibility information allows project s to use these three categories as indicators of a participant’s need for academic support (see § 645. 3 ) , and it allows the Department to better analyze the population that is served by VUB
. The Department is aware that a project may

not have collected information on two of the high risk criteria at the time of the participant’s initial selections (i.e., o ut of school for five ye ars; low standardized test scores ) for participants first served prior to the 2012

– 1 7 grant cycle; therefore , a project may select the option (Not applicable, participant s erved prior to the 2012

- 17 grant period). Further, b ecause the high

- risk eligibility status is new to the 2012

– 17 grant cycle and because of the delay s in clearing the new VUB APR , the Department is aware that projects may not have collected this information on all new participants first served in the 2012

– 13 or 2013
- 14 project ye ar s and thus may

select “unknown”. However, b eginning with the 2014

– 15 project year, a projec t is expected to assess a new participant’s eligibility using all three criteria and to report accordingl y.3

For the third high risk criterion (disability status), a project provided this information for demographic purposes in the prior APRs and thus should be able to provide this information on all current and prior ye ar participants. In addition, , the Department has determined that the new APR should include another field to permit a project to report on a VUB participant’s need for academic support needs that is outside the definition of “high risk”. **Action Taken :**  While the report ing requirement has not changed, the options available in th e three “At Risk” field s have changed. Option 9, which previously read, “Not applicable, participant not at high risk for academic failure,” has been amended t o read, “Not applicable, prior or continuing participant served before the 2012

- 17 cycle
. ” T he Department has also added to the APR a new field entitled , Academic Need , which will capture other needs a veteran may have for academic support in order to prepare for postsecondary education. **High Risk of Academic Failure -**  **Eligibility Based on Low Standardized Test Scores Comment:**  O ne commenter suggested that the Department establish a set standardized test score for projects to use when determining if a participant met the high

- risk criterion based upon low standardized test scores. In addition, the commenter stated that obtaining standardized test score s would be difficult because veterans are not likely to remember their standardized test scores and obtaining the information from third

- party (e.g., high school) is often not feasible for individuals who have been out of school for several y ears. **Discussion:** T he Department does not have the authority to regulate assessments. Further, the program regulations allow the project to determine the academic needs of participants ( §645. 3 ); therefore, the specific standards for low standardized test scores are to be determined by each project. A project is not required to use “low standardized test scores” in determining a participant’ s eligibility to receive VUB services . However, the Department would like to remind project s that standardized test scores are required for the Academic Improvement on Standardized Test program objective ; therefore, the project must provide this informati on in field #29 in order to qualify for prior experience ( PE ) points for this objective **Action Taken:** None. **High Risk of Academic Failure -**  **Eligibility Based on**  **Disability Status Comments**  **:** One commenter expressed concern that projects would no t be required to report on the disability

status of all participants served by VUB
. **Discussion :**  Disability

status is defined in section 12102 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq. ). Inthe version of the APR that was posted f or the 60

- day

comment period, projects were only required to select an applicable response in the disability status field for participants who were designated as at a high

- risk of academic failure. However, the4

Department has determined that it is important to gather this information for demographic purposes . Therefore, instead of adding a new field to capture this information, the Department is requesting that projects respond to this field for al l current and prior

- ye ar participants **Action Taken :**  The APR form has been revised to include the following instruction for field #19 (At Risk: Disability

): “ In the prior APR, a VUB project was required to report on the disability status of participant s for demographic purposes. Therefore, i n this new field, please r eport on the disability status of **all** current and prior

- year participants.

**Section II: Fields Concerning Participation in VUB Reporting on Reentry Participants**  **Comments:** Noting that this field indicates that a date of last service must not change in a later reporting year, one commenter argued that the options provided in this field do not provide a means to report on reentry participants. **Discussion:** The Department agrees that the field and instructions need to be modified to make clear that the date of last service may be revised for reentry

participants. **Action Taken:** The field now directs the grantee to the General Instructions for guidance on reporting reentry

participants; the instructions have been revised to indicate that, for a “reentry” participant that has not completed the program b y the end of the reporting ye ar , the date of last project service should be changed to 99/99/9999 (“Not applicable, participant is still in the program”) or for a “reentry” participant that has completed the program by the end of the reporting year, the last service date o f the stud ent should be updated.

**Section II: Information on Postsecondary Education Postsecondary Remediation**  **Comment:** Two commenters expressed that the available response options for the postsecondary remediation field do not include an optio n for participants who are not in the current postsecondary

enrollment cohort. Additionally , one commenter stated that tracking remediation of participants while in postsecondary education will be virtually impossible. An other commenter stated that an option o f not applicable should be available for a prior participant. **Discussion:** For reporting ye ar 2012
- 13 (as an example), the postsecondary remediation field requests information only on participants in the 201 2 postsecondary education enrollment cohort (i.e., current or prior

- year participants who completed their prescribed VUB educational program at an y time and enroll ed in a program of postsecondary education during academic ye ar 2012
- 13 ). The concerns raised by the commenters, regarding the lack of an appropriate option to5

report that a participant is not in the applicable cohort, have been taken under advisement
. It was determined that a necessary response option had been omitted. The field on postsecondary remediation reflects one of the performance measures established for VUB and included in the grant application package. The Department developed these measures to track the progress of VUB projects in achieving program success; the specific measure on r emedial course enrollment may help the Department assess the extent to which VUB projects are able to prepare participants adequatel y for success at the postsecondary level. The Department acknowledges that some projects may encounter difficulty in acquiring information on participants’ remedial coursework; we note, however, that the timeframe is limited, encompassing only

the first y ear of postsecondary education; we hope that the brevity of the period will help projects as they complete the task. We als o hope that projects’ normal follow

up contacts with prior

- ye ar participants will serve as opportunities to inquire about remedial coursework. Information on remediation that the project gains through such personal contacts is acceptable documentation, as long as the project considers it reliable. The Department is, moreover, attempting to identify additional way s in which, over the course of the grant cy cle, data on remediation could be more readil y gathered. **Action Taken:** An additional option has bee n added to the postsecondary remediation field : Option 9 , which states, “Not Applicable

– Participant is not in the 2012

- 13 cohort.” The Department is not changing the requirement that VUB project s report on postsecondary remediation
. **Reporting Postsecondary Completion**  **Comments :**  One commenter p erceived responses to several of the fields regarding postsecondary

completion as redundant, as similar information is collected in the fields for each postsecondary

credential and the corresponding date fields. **Discussion:** The Department maintains that information for th ese field s is needed for the calculation of the statutorily pr escribed postsecondary completion outcome measures for the VUB program and the performance measures established for the FY 2012 VUB grant competition (e.g., measure s on - time completion of postsecondary degrees) **Action Taken :**  None.